ahhh I LOVE the beach.....

whew! we are officially moved! what a crazy busy week and the craziness continues. i feel like once we get organized and everything is in it's place and the painting is done and the art/shelves are hung then MAYBE the craziness will stop for awhile. once we get a little further I will post some before and after pictures of the house.

anyway, amidst all the craziness of moving Chad also had to preach at the lakes. I LOVE these Sunday's, as our tradition is after church to go get a bucket of KFC and head down to the beach for a couple hours. Soaking in the sun while my kids play in the sand and wade in the water (while my hubby watches them - he's so sweet!) is PURE relaxation for me. ahhh, complete bliss.

I did get a few great shots of the girls playing at the beach. My youngest didn't venture very far (she is NOT a fan of water, pools, baths, having her face wiped, etc...) so that actually was kind of nice cause she was easy to keep an eye on. The other two stayed busy in the shallow water and playing in the sand. what a glorious day! we praise God for his beauty, a perfect sunny day with a little breeze and giving us just what we needed admist all the craziness of moving week.

love multiplied

ya know, i heard a saying a few days ago about how a mother's love is not split between her children when a new baby comes along, rather it is multiplied. i am so grateful to my girls that they have expanded my heart 3 times (soon 4! halfway there!) it is so true, i feel like when i am pregnant, i am thinking, how am i going to love another one as much as i already love the ones i have right now? and then... the next one comes along and yep, no question, love at first sight, and my heart has multiplied again. so bring on the babies, cause i want a huge heart! (okay just kidding, i think this 4th will be just enough, lol) anyway, a sappy post today cause that is just the kind of day it is :)

color challenge card

since i've started my blog, i've been very into looking at other people's blogs. one of my favorites is kristina werner's. i love her clean and simple style of cardmaking. anyway, i just discovered that she posts color inspiration challenges weekly on her blog so i thought before i pack up my stamps and supplies for a few weeks i would make one last card and use this as my inspiration. here is my take on her color challenge which can be found here: http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=1832

and here's my take on the challenge:

i've had this idea to make a rainbow with my coluzzle for quite awhile so when i saw the challenge colors i immediately thought of this idea. here is my supply list:
PAPER: kraft cardstock (Paper Studio), white cardstock (Georgia Pacific), various pattern paper from my scraps including red (Creative Memories), yellow (Making Memories), orange, green, blue (MME)
OTHER: stamp (Stampin Up's Cheep Talk set), ink (Stampin Up chocolate chip), Coluzzle cutter and circle template, ribbon (Offray), button (not sure, it was a large set from Walmart), White gel pen (Stampin Up), brown pen (Creative Memories)

She's into EVERYTHING!

So yesterday I found my youngest in our entertainment center. Yes, in it. This tells me two things... 1) She is at the age that she gets into absolutely everything and 2) I am lacking in supervision skills for such a phase. I was even in the room, but apparently ignorant to the fact that she opened the door -which has a "child safety lock" on it, obviously not functioning as it should, and climbed inside to the second shelf. She thought it was great but then was unsure how she was going to get back out. (mommy to the rescue on that one, after taking pictures, of course) Joys of parenthood :)

10pm scrappin

so at 10pm last night i decided to head down to the basement and scrapbook. a little late start but i still got 3 layouts done in 1 1/2 hours :) here is what i was able to accomplish....





Title: Sizzlin Summer
Journaling: one of the great things of having a summer baby is being able to hang out in just a diaper and seeing all that baby cuteness!
Supplies: Green pattern paper - MME "Bohemia" collection, White cardstock from my scraps pile, title sticker - Creative Memories, ribbons - offray, crochet flower - my mom!, circle and oval scallop punch - Marvy Uchida, scallop border - Stampin Up, button - unknown (just out of my button tin of random buttons i've collected), staple
this first page is really simple (well all my pages are.) i found a sheet of background paper and just went with it. the crocheted flower is one that my mom made me! i LOVE these and am trying not to hoard them. we saw them in the stampin up catalog last year and she said "oh I can make those!" and so she did!


Title: 4th of July
Journaling: Jordyn's first holiday! She even had a patriotic shirt to celebrate in :) My sweet American girl!
Supplies: Almost all supplies were from Stampin Up's "Creative License" Simply Scrappin Kit, except for Heidi Swap Ghost Stars, edge distressor, title stickers - Paper Studio, staples
This page came together VERY fast. I made the photo collage on Walmarts photo website awhile ago (SUPER easy way to get lots of pictures on one page!) Using the scrapping kit makes things so easy to pull together quick pages. After I had finished another page I came back to this one and I decided to add the ghost stars and staples for a little more "oomph."


Title: She loves them too
Journaling: Riley and Shannon adore thier little sister and live for the moments they can get her to smile. Each time Jordyn's face lights up, I know that.... (leads into title)
Supplies: Kraft Cardstock - Paper Studio, Pattern Papers - ugh! I don't remember! I think it was a big pack from walmart???, Letter Stickers - Paper Studio, white gel pen - Stampin Up (this is THE best white gel pen I have found and I've tried a lot!), mat pack and paper piercer - Stampin Up, Circle Scallop Punch - Marvy Uchida.
This is my personal favorite page from the night. I know I cased the layout design from a scrapbooking magazine (where i get most of my inspiration from) but i'm not sure which one! I think i just love the pictures. :) Using letter stickers made it go fast and the fact that I had preplanned the page (sketch, title, journaling) made it go quickly. I just had to pick the papers and crop my pictures down and then pull it all together. I love to preplan my pages... currently i have over 20 layouts preplanned and ready to get scrapped. I can sit upstairs with my family and design my pages by looking through magazines for ideas and then when i have a little time (like last night) the pages come together much faster! this system really works for me.

stampin again

so last night i finally had the chance to stamp a couple cards. i've been itching to get down to my "craft area" lately and just haven't had the time to. but my wonderful husband took my two older girls to a baseball game and once i got my youngest in bed (promptly at 8pm so i could get to stamping!) i was able to spend a little time putting together some cards. these were inspired by a couple designs in the new stampin up catalog.

soon i will be packing up my stamps and scrapbook stuff... sniff, sniff. but i am super excited to reorganize everything in our new house. it will most likely take over a corner of the basement rec room. i think that will be great and give me more opportunity to work on things as long as i can keep little hands away :) once i get settled in the new house i will post pictures of my new crafting space.

I {heart} summer...

Summer is my favorite season by far...

recently I took a quiz on Facebook that said my ideal state to live in is Hawaii. i wish that were a reality! but i enjoy the summers in iowa as they are hot and sunny (although the bugs, wind, scary thunderstorms/tornados i could do without) I do miss some things about WA summers... my favorite flower is hydrangeas and they just don't grow well out here. My MIL gave me a hydrangea that is hardy to iowa and though it stays small and the blooms aren't like the big blue ones in WA it still brings me joy and a taste of "home" each summer.

another thing i miss about WA summers is strawberry season. there are a ton of berry fields in the area i grew up and my parents grew berries for several years as well. my mom makes the best freezer jam, each time i go to visit her i make sure to have some. but chad's grandma stopped by yesterday and dropped off a little box of fresh strawberries from a local field! yay! they are already gone :) i am hoping to go out to this farm and pick some more myself and try to make my mom's recipe for jam.

one more thought about summer... i LOVE to sit outside and soak up some sun. i love listening and watching my kids play in the kiddie pool. i finally got the pool out yesterday and my girls were out there ALL afternoon. they even performed a "water show" using the pool noodles, that was quite humorous. so fun. :)